Travelling By Air To An African Hunting Destination Has Your Firearm Ever Been Lost

[rookhawk]

Liked @spike.t poll on ammo so I thought it would be meaningful to compare missing guns versus missing ammo.

 

[enysse]

I have had my gun case destroyed.

 

[Rob404]

I have had my gun case destroyed.

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Wow Eric did they drop that from Cruising altitude?

 

[rinehart0050]

Jeeez! Looks like that ran that case over with an 18 wheeler

 

[enysse]

I suspect they drove it over, I'm not sure it was intentional or not. I placed the gun firmly in the middle with the scope attached. The guns point of aim was off, but accuracy was still excellent. Unfortunately you can't get a nice case like that anymore without paying a lot.

 

[sheephunterab]

Never Africa but every time to Asia!

 

[BRICKBURN]

Bow was delayed.
Never an issue with rifles.

 

[Royal27]

No issues ever foreign or domestic.

Another interesting question would be how many have had damage done, or even a POI change?

I suspect that number is low too, at least for damage to gun/case. POI could of course be more than getting banged around.

 

[sheephunterab]

Never a significant POI change but Air New Zealand ripped the handle off our Tuffpak

 

[Royal27]

Never a significant POI change but Air New Zealand ripped the handle off our Tuffpak

The one on top I assume?

While not impossible that would take some effort!!!

 

[sheephunterab]

Yes, the top one....thankfully it was a $10 fix.

 

[LivingTheDream]

My gun was lost. Had Henry rifle handle the permits and SAA promised to delivery since they had the permits....yeah 5 days into an 8 day hunt they call to tell me it made it to SAA and was in Jo'burg but I was hunting in the eastern cape. No way they could deliver but I could pick it up. After many discussions they agree to send it East London. Oh yeah it gets better the only part of my hunt that was left was a Rhino dart.

Sooooooooo they flew it to East London and I picked it up as I was leaving town.

Since I had a direct flight I asked how they lost my rifle and they said oh we forgot to put it on the plane...smh

 

[slam8031]

Mine missed the final flight home from ATL. Delta emailed and called me before I made it to baggage in columbia sc. The delta crew delivered to my house within five hours of landing. Good customer service. My solution--always have 2.5-3 hours between arrival and departure ...(and with current TSA issues, tray might not be enough).

 

[Red Leg]

Coming home from Namibia in '08 no rifle at Dulles. Baggage said it was somewhere on the facility. I went home and it was delivered 3 or 4 hours later. Have no idea what happened, but no damage.

 

[rookhawk]

My wife got a chuckle out of this statement the other day but I'll say it here for your amusement:

What's the worst thing that can happen to me on my safari? - My guns don't get to Africa on time.

What's the best thing that can happen to me on my safari? -My guns don't get home period.

All jokes aside, I use Eastern Insurance for firearms insurance because no one has a better rate. $100,000 policy is $330 a year. (price it out, on homeowners that would be $1000+) $500 deductible. You don't have to schedule a gun unless its over $10,000. They also include all the accessories, etc.

 

[gillettehunter]

My track record with rifles is spotty at best. First trip or Africa my rifle arrived on the AM of the 4 th hunting day and we drove a ways out of our way to retrieve it. Same trip home was a disaster. Was only checked to Dulles. They claimed they wouldn't put more than 3 stops on the baggage claim ticket. Got to Dulles and no rifle. When it arrived United didn't want to take responsibility for getting it to me. Took right at 30 days.
Then my last trip to Kyrg my rifle was a day late arriving. Turkish air actually pad my extra night in a hotel and 10% of my daily fees as I had to wait for the rifle....... So 3 out of 10 legs I have had issues..... Bruce

 

[Desperatezulu]

I've had two issues - one inbound and the other outbound. I was living in the UK at the time.

1st one, my shotgun made it to JHB and cleared customs etc but when I checked it for the flight to Durban it went to Nelspruit or Phalaborwa. I actually saw the dumbass baggage handler (who walked through the boarding gate and onto the apron with me) load it onto the plane next door - I was sitting in my window seat watching this unfold but unable to do a damn thing about it. Needless, to say it was fun & games in Durban because technically and legally I had to have the gun in my possession at all times under the terms of the temp import permit and the SA Police official was very excited to remind of this. So by leaving Durban airport without the shotgun, I was breaking the law. SAA could have given less of a $h!t about helping me - long story short, I got a call 3 or 4 days later saying I could come and collect it at the airport. No assistance in getting it to me or compensating me for the 5 hr round trip to collect it. At least I had some time before the hunt commenced, so I was not inconvenienced from a hunting perspective.

2nd time I was returning from SA to the UK with KLM via Amsterdam (another fun story was getting the firearms permit to transit through Amsterdam) and my gun was nowhere to be found on arrival at Heathrow. An hour or so of paperwork and I was on my way without the gun but with their airline's undertaking to deliver it to my house. Which they duly did but the case was severely damaged, as was the stock in multiple places. Some credit to KLM, they paid me out in full for my claim when the likelihood was that a friendly baggage handler somewhere was responsible. But at the end of the day my gun was damaged en route...

 

[Nyati]

My rifle missed the connection in Zurich on the way back from Africa, it came in the next day.

 

[rookhawk]

Point of order:

At present we are averaging 1 in 4 people have had their guns arrive late / go missing. Further, some of the people that responded that there guns did arrive late didn't bother to vote in the poll.

I tend to be a realist (is that a pessimist?) so I assumed there was a 1:10 chance of lost guns. If this poll holds any merit it appears to be more like 1:4, a shocking number if the present trend of the poll persists.

 

[Royal27]

Point of order:

At present we are averaging 1 in 4 people have had their guns arrive late / go missing. Further, some of the people that responded that there guns did arrive late didn't bother to vote in the poll.

I tend to be a realist (is that a pessimist?) so I assumed there was a 1:10 chance of lost guns. If this poll holds any merit it appears to be more like 1:4, a shocking number if the present trend of the poll persists.

I bet it is well less than 1:10. Way, way less.

You have to remember several things.

1. Sample size is extremely small
2. You're assuming that everyone has only gone once, or that the rifle has been lost/damaged every trip
3. That all "no" answers have gone only once
4. People with damage are probably more likely to vote here and share their story than this who have never had an issue

This poll is very interesting, but also totally non-scientific. Statistically speaking the poll has no merit what so ever.

My bet is that the gun loss/damage rate is on par with luggage in general, which is all it is, luggage.